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VERIFY: Are Facebook fundraisers raising money for immigrant families legit?

Here's how to know if the latest Facebook fundraiser is legit.

QUESTION:

Are Facebook fundraisers raising money for immigrant families legit?

ANSWER:

Yes, according to charity watchdog experts.

SOURCES:

BBB Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Watch, GuideStar

PROCESS:

A lot of you may feel distraught over children being separated from their parents and looking for ways to help like the latest viral fundraising campaign for immigrants.

But with so many fake charities out there, is this one you should donate to? Our Verify team got the facts so you'll know if it's worth your time.

Over $14 million dollars of the $15 million goal has been raised for a trending Facebook fundraiser aiming to reunite immigrant parents with their child.

Started by a couple, they are working to raise money for the nonprofit RAICES, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. So where's that money going to? The organization addressed this in a Facebook live video on June 20.

"So our goal is to provide free legal representation to every child in Texas. That is the goal of the LEAF project. I think we also equally see a crucial need of legal representation for the parents who are detained as well and receive far fewer services than the children. We absolutely want to ensure that every parent has access to representation to legal counsel," said Manoj Govindaiah, RAISES Director of Family Detention Services.

"We hope to continue advocating against these barbaric policies and policies that fail to take into account asylum seekers, refugees, victims of trauma and continue providing direct representation and support to our partner organizations throughout Texas and throughout the country so we can all continue doing this work in every corner of the country," Govidaiah continued.

We also checked with the charity watch dog sites. The Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance, told WUSA9 researchers that the San Antonio based organization has been around since 1986 and raises most of its money through crowdfunding.

With help from another charity watchdog site, GuideStar, RAICES makes their IRS tax filings public and we found no red flags there.

As for security, Facebook fundraising sets criteria that includes making sure a charity is registered with the IRS and also doesn't charge a fee for giving donations, which means Facebook and the nonprofit are not taking a cut of the money for themselves, Charity Watch experts explained.

So we can verify, yes, everything checks out, this is a legit fundraiser to donate to.

The organization, which currently has about 50 lawyers on staff, plans to go on a hiring spree and fund training for volunteer lawyers willing to travel to Texas to assist.

The Better Business Bureau Alliance encourages donors to be on the lookout for fake charities and charities that sound similar to this trending organization. Click here for more tips from the BBB.

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